Viewpoints above Jílové u Prahy, the ‘golden mountain town’ – 6 km to 16 km tours

• Jílové u Prahy is a town located 20 km to the south of Prague in hilly countryside. The town became important in the Middle Ages (and later periods) as the center of a gold mining area. It was already known as the ‘royal golden mountain town’ by the 14th century when given a license to mint gold ducats by King Jan Lucemburský. The town museum has an exhibition on gold mining, and also organizes interesting tours in two nearby 18th century mines.
• The museum is actually located in a very old old house which was once owned by Edward Kelley, the infamous English alchemist who was part of Emperor Rudolf II ‘s Prague court in the 16th century. Presumably Kelley found the area (with its ready source of local raw material) conducive to his ‘experiments’ to produce alchemical gold. It was a frequently used alchemical technique to use seeds of gold to try to grow a larger nugget.
• There are two marked educational trails that lead from the attractive town square – one featuring information about the gold mining activities in the area, and the other a circular tour of the viewpoints around the town. This latter trail is described below. The full tour – which completely circles Jílové and offers a variety of views from the hills surrounding the town – is 16km long (with 400m of height gained/lost).
• There are various points on the full circular route where it is possible to shorten the tour and return directly back to Jílové. A shorter – 6km – version of the route is also described below . This short version visits the two best viewpoints around town and involves 175m of height gained/lost.
• The paths are easy, mostly in open meadows and forest, with occasional asphalt road sections. There are no refreshment places directly on the route, but there are various options in the town center, including the Kavárna U Zlatého korálku, located within the Radnice (town hall) which originally dates from the 14th century.

Note: click ‘Show on Mapy.com’  to go to a full screen version of the route directly on the mapy.com site. This can be used for on line navigation, saved or exported as a GPX file.

Directions (for the full and shorter routes)

• Start the walk in Jílové u Prahy town centre. There are regular buses from Prague (Budějovická metro) to the town which also has parking areas directly in the main square (free on Sundays)
• The full 16km tour follows the red-white diagonal stripe nature trail markings for its whole length. The marks are frequent and well positioned – there is just one turn (point 10 on the main map) which is not well signposted
• For both the longer and shorter walks it is suggested to follow the trail anticlockwise, starting at the town museum
• Take the side street that runs beside the town museum-information center, following the red-white marks to the village pond
• From the pond the route climbs for 800m to reach the Boží skála viewpoint
• From Boží skála the trail descends for 1.6 km to the Podhrazský mlýn trail signpost on the public road, before climbing again for 900m to reach the Svatá Anna signpost
• From Svatá Anna continue on the red-white diagonal striped trail for 800m to reach the Pepř  viewing tower – a telecom tower with a spiral staircase open to the public. There is an excellent view from the top
• From Pepř continue for 300m to reach the wooden cross. If taking the longer route continue left on the red-white striped trail. If taking the 6km route turn right at the cross onto the zlaté doly (gold mining) green-white striped educational trail. This leads back to the town center after 1.2 km
• Continuing on the main route (red-white stripes), take the path which descends the hill for 600m, reaching the public road.
• Turn right onto the road and follow for 250m to reach the junction where the marked trail takes the left fork
• Continue on the public road for a further 300m until there is a small track on the right (map point 10). Take this track and the red-white markings will shortly be visible again
• Continue on the trail , which is well marked as traverses forest and meadow areas until reaching Radlík village after 6km
• In Radlík the trail follows the public road away from Jílové for 500m before turning right to descend towards the small ski area of Chotouňský areál, alongside the Jilovský stream. The ski area is reached in 2km
• From Chotouňský areál, the final section of the route climbs to the last viewpoint above Jílové before descending to reach the town center (1.6 km after leaving Chotouňský areál)